College Enrollment Continues to Decline

There are roughly 1.4 million fewer US college students now than before the pandemic began, according to new data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.

🎓 A deeper dive… 662,000 fewer students enrolled in US undergraduate programs this spring compared to last, marking the 12th straight year that enrollment has declined. Overall, the number of college students fell 4.7% from Spring 2021, which itself was a 3.5% decline from the previous year.

• Community colleges accounted for more than half of the decline this spring, and have lost over 827,000 students since the pandemic began.
• Despite student losses in other areas, elite colleges and universities have continued to attract an overflow of applicants. All eight Ivy League schools are at or near all-time highs, along with institutions like Stanford, MIT and Duke.

🇺🇸 Zoom out: While the pandemic is blamed as the primary reason for college enrollment declines since 2019, falling birth rates are expected to play a much larger role in US enrollment going forward.

• Births fell 17% across the US from 2007 through 2020, which means the current dip in enrollment is likely going to accelerate once that population starts reaching college age in a few years.